1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric separating apparatus, and more particularly relates to an electric separating apparatus that can be operated to separate glycerol from bio-diesel oil quickly.
2. Description of Related Art
As cost of extracting petroleum and increased competition over the same resource causes increased higher end user prices, study and development of new energy sources to replace petroleum is becoming more frequent. Bio-diesel is an equivalent replacement for many uses of petroleum, but bio-diesel still requires mixing with petroleum derived diesel fuel. Further, bio-diesel can reduce air pollution when mixed with standard diesel fuel since sulfur is not present in bio-diesel.
In addition, bio-diesel is a reaction product by transesterification of methanol and plant oil with sodium hydroxide catalyst. Plant oil consists mainly of triglyceride so a liquid mixture of bio-diesel and glycerol is formed. The specific gravity of the glycerol is larger than the specific gravity of the bio-diesel so the liquid mixture can be left to stand to separate the bio-diesel from atop a glycerol layer. However, such process is time-consuming.
Alternatively, a conventional centrifugal separator can be used to separate the glycerol from the liquid mixture. However, energy and investment costs of the conventional centrifugal separator along with component complexity renders such method inefficient. Further, different sized tanks are needed according to the volume of the transesterification reaction.
Therefore, the present invention provides an electric separating apparatus to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.